Releasing three books on the life and works of former Vice President Venkaiah Naidu through video conferencing on Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the journey of Mr. Naidu’s life is a source of inspiration for the younger generations. The programme was organised in Hyderabad on the eve of Mr. Naidu’s 75th birthday.

Mr. Modi said the life of Mr. Naidu was a perfect glimpse of the amalgamation of ideas, vision and personality. “No one can match the level of Mr. Naidu’s wit, spontaneity, quick counters and one-liners,” the Prime Minister said, remembering his long association with Mr. Naidu in the BJP and in the Union Cabinet.

Mr. Modi released three books on the occasion — Venkaiah Naidu: Life in Service, a biography authored by the former resident editor of The Hindu’s Hyderabad edition, S. Nagesh Kumar; Celebrating Bharat: The Mission and Message of Shri M Venkaiah Naidu as 13th Vice-President of India, a photo chronicle compiled by I.V. Subba Rao, former secretary to the Vice-President of India; and Mahaneta: Life and Journey of Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu, a pictorial biography in Telugu authored by Sanjay Kishore .

India has become the first country in the world to prepare a comprehensive checklist of its entire fauna, covering 104,561 species, Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav announced on Saturday. He was speaking at the Animal Taxonomy Summit-2024 organized by the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI).

Yadav also launched the Fauna of India Checklist Portal on the occasion of the 109th Foundation Day of the ZSI in Kolkata. He emphasized that India is a global leader in biodiversity conservation, highlighting that the country’s tradition, ethos, and values respect nature and promote biodiversity conservation.

“India has become the first country in the world to prepare a checklist of its entire fauna, covering 104,561 species, positioning itself as a global leader in biodiversity documentation,” Yadav stated. The Fauna of India Checklist Portal is the first comprehensive document detailing the faunal species reported from India.

Senior IAS officer Manoj Kumar Singh took over as the chief secretary of Uttar Pradesh on Sunday, an official statement said.

The 1988-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the Uttar Pradesh cadre, replaces Durga Shankar Mishra, it added.

Singh has been holding the charge of the agriculture production commissioner, infrastructure and industrial development commissioner and the additional chief secretary of the Panchayati Raj department of Uttar Pradesh till now.

In a ceremonial farewell, General Manoj Pande, the outgoing Chief of the Indian Army, was accorded a Guard of Honour on his final day in office.

Gen Pande, who served a distinguished 26-month tenure, also paid homage at the National War Memorial in Delhi.

Originally slated to retire on May 30, Gen Pande's service was extended by the government for an additional month, allowing him to serve until June 30.

As per Government sources, his successor had to be appointed after the declaration of the 2024 Lok Sabha election results which were scheduled for June 4.

Seasoned India all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja on Sunday announced his retirement from T20 Internationals, joining his illustrious teammates Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma in bidding adieu to the format a day after winning the World Cup here.

One of the world’s finest fielders, Jadeja said he will continue to play ODIs and Tests.

“With a heart full of gratitude, I bid farewell to T20 internationals. Like a steadfast horse galloping with pride, I’ve always given my best for my country and will continue to do so in other formats,” the 35-year-old wrote on Instagram underneath a picture of him holding the trophy.

Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh on Friday launched two geoportals namely ‘Bhuvan Panchayat (Ver 4.0)" portal for rural land records and "National Database for Emergency Management (NDEM Ver 5.0)" developed by Indian Space research Organization (ISRO), at Prithvi Bhavan, New Delhi.

These latest geospatial tools are meant for for visualisation and planning to provide high resolution satellite imagery of 1:10K scale for different locations across the entire country.

Highlighting the importance of ‘Bhuvan Panchayat Portal’ to support “Space based Information Support for Decentralized Planning (SISDP)” and empower the citizens at the grass root level in Panchayats’ the Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, Dr Jitendra Singh said this is continuing our efforts to empower the citizens at the grass root level and allow them to take benefit of these services, to promote ease of living by reducing the need to depend on local administration for land records and revolutionize land record management by digitalization and land revenue management. The tools will provide real time data at the tips of citizens and reduce corruption at the grass roots level.

Noida's IT company Corporate Infotech Private Limited (CIPL) has got the work of 'Gov Drive' project to develop a highly secure application for the Government of India. On completion of this project, more than 50 lakh government employees will be able to easily exchange files through cloud-based technology. Instead of sending confidential files manually, now they can be sent instantly through the Gov Drive application. In this process, not only will the exchange of information be accelerated, but time will also be saved.

The Gov-Drive project is a very ambitious project of the Central Government. Through this, more than 50 lakh government officials and employees of different ministries, departments, statutory bodies, judiciary, commissions, constitutional officers, agencies and top advisory bodies located in the Center and Union Territories will be able to conduct their work seamlessly and streamline it from one office to another. The Gov-Drive application to be developed by CIPL will be based on cloud technology, through which not only will the movement of files be faster but its confidentiality will also be protected.

Nepalese citizens can now make digital payments of up to Rs 1 lakh in India. In fact, under the cross-border digital payment agreement between Nepal and India, a monthly spending limit of Rs 1 lakh has been set for Nepalese citizens in India.

You can make payments through QR code
Nepal Rastra Bank has issued a directive to all banks today to allow customers to spend up to one lakh rupees in Indian currency in digital payments made through QR code in India. Now you can pay for any purchase or any service in India through QR code. Nepali citizens can make payments using the QR facility of any bank including their country's e-wallet company Phone Ray or e Seva.

This facility has already been started for Indian citizens in Nepal.
Indian citizens visiting Nepal are currently making payments easily using their BHIM, UPI, Paytm, Google Pay, etc. The start of this service has made things much easier for the citizens of both the countries. Due to the Nepalese rupee not being in circulation in India and notes above 100 not being valid in Nepal, tourists and businessmen had to face a lot of problems. But now with the start of the QR code facility in both the countries, people are getting a lot of relief.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) signed a USD 60 million nonconvertible debentures financing agreement, disbursing USD 30 million to Aadhar Housing Finance Limited (AHFL) to provide housing loans to women and address the shortage of financing in the low-income and affordable housing segment in India.

As per a release, half of the funds will be deployed in Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal.

ADB Director General for Private Sector Operations Suzanne Gaboury highlighted that poor households often struggle to meet bank loan requirements and typically finance their homes through savings, borrowing from family or friends, or from moneylenders at high interest rates.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in a notification announced the new swap framework, offering various concessions.

"Under the Framework for 2024-27, a separate INR Swap Window has been introduced with various concessions for swap support in Indian Rupee. The total corpus of the Rupee support is Rs250 billion," the RBI stated.

Furthermore, the RBI plans to maintain swap agreements in US Dollars and Euros through a dedicated US Dollar/Euro Swap Window worth $2 billion, it said.